The Crystal Palace:
The Beginning of Iron & Glass Architecture
References: Hix, John: The Glass House McKean, John: The Crystal Palace
The Great Exhibition; London, 1851
A Great Exhibit of the Works of Industry
of All Nations The building was the epitome of Englands industry, vision, determination, wealth, technical knowledge, and powers of production.
Charles Dickens said of the project,
Two parties in London, relying on the accuracy and good faith of certain ironmasters, glass-workers in the provinces, and of one master carpenter in London, bound themselves for a certain sum of money, and in the course of four months, to cover eighteen acres of ground with a building upwards of a third of a mile long (1851 feet- the exact date of the year) and some hundred and fifty feet broad. In order to do this, the glass maker promised to supply, in the required time, nine hundred thousand square feet of glass (> 400 tons). The iron-master passed his word in like manner, to cast in due time 3300 iron columns; 34 miles of guttering tube, 2224 girders. The carpenter undertook to get ready within the specific period 205 miles of sash-bar; flooring for a building of thirty-three millions of cubic feet; besides enormous quantities of wooden walling, louver work and partition.
The Building Delivery Process
01/1850 The Royal Commission, Chaired by Prince Albert
03/13/50 Competition announced for temporary exhibition
building 240 entries, none chosen, instead committee offered its own design A brick structure with an iron dome - dark, heavy, permanent
Fears Abound
protectionists feared foreign
goods environmentalists feared destruction of elms the press feared foreign visitors - Papists, thieves, & syphilitics
Problems with the Committees Design
17 million bricks, 200ft dome, extensive foundations, a
permanent structure By 06/50 things looked bleak
Enter the White Knight: Joseph Paxton
founded newspaper, wrote books on horticulture, wrote
articles on greenhouse design knew several people on Royal Commission they found loophole to allow design submission
Architectural Conservatory; Prof. Richard Bradley , 1718
School of Botany at Cambridge
conformed to rules of arch., but considered welfare of plants.
glass dome, thin Corinthian columns., white tile walls
Das Grosses Gewchshaus; Kassel , 1822
Great Conservatory; Paxton, 1836
Longest glass building in the world 277L x 123 W x 67 H. Laminated wood beams, cast iron columns along the nave, ridge & furrow
glazing system
Great Wall at Chatsworth; Paxton, 1848
330 long enclosure of an exist. masonry wall
Victoria Regia House; Paxton, 1850
cultivating a growing Victoria Regia Lilly from S. America
leaves supported by thin cantilevers
first flat roof installation of ridge & furrow glazing system two tilted 49 glass panes + sash equals 81, c/c.
24 girders + deep gutters + trussed Paxton gutter
Victoria Regia House; Gutter Details
external & interior waterways
change of depth
trusses with pretensioning
For the Crystal Palace, Paxton..
promised a full set of drawings in 10 days based on a sketch
during a RR board meeting, he & estate staff produced drawings in seven days - almost exact to what was actually built
After Paxtons First Sketches Were Accepted.
Fox Henderson & Co. undertook calculations and the prep of
detailed drawings.
bid of 150, 000 - if left standing bid of 79,800 if leased
now the building committee needed to approve the plans
Paxton Leaked Design to Illustrated London News
cheaper, quicker, assemble/ disassemble, no brick, stone,
mortar, light foundation, day lighting, no interior walls, 25% greater area committee was furious public overwhelmingly positive
On 07/15.
Royal Commission rejected
Building Committees design & accepted Paxtons lower bid added transcept to save the elms
Construction Drawings
Fox - 7weeks, 18hrs/ day to produce drawings
as soon as drawings were finished, Henderson set up
production schedule small crew installed drainpipes & light foundations
Exterior:
Overall Building: 1848 x 456
Nave: 72W x 64 H
Transcept: 408 x 104 H
Modular, Hierarchical
Cast Iron in Buildings:
Crystal Palace
3,300 columns from 14 1/2 to 20 ft tall
34 miles of guttering tube below grade 2,224 girders
Cast Iron Applications in Buildings
1796 - Shrewesbury Warehouse 1809 - cast iron dome in Paris 1849 - cast iron facades by J. Bogardus 1851 - Crystal Palace 1855 - Bessemer Process for steel making 1884 - Home Insurance Building, Chicago
Cast Iron in the Crystal Palace
Column ends were lathe
turned Canvas gasket dipped in white lead at the joints 3 deep collar with connecting lip Girders secured with wrought iron wedges
Column Schedule
Strength Testing:
several iron bridges had failed in the 1840s
for public assurance:
marching soldiers and rolling cannon balls
for the engineers:
hydraulic press tested 214 girders with 24 span tested at 15T and 22T
first private testing laboratories & concept of factor of safety
Wood
600,000 cu ft of wood milled into >200 miles of gutters and
sash bars milling operation input rough beams and output finished profiled gutters dipped in paint trough and run across fixed brushes to remove excess
Glass
Chance Bros. & Co. won the
contract from 08/50 - 02/51, they produced:
>300,00 sheets >900,000 sf >400T
largest sheet ever made, 10 x
49 from the cylinder process
this contract equaled 1/3 of
Englands total prior production
Ridge & Furrow Glazing
Daylight
suffered from excessive light
and heat gain canvas was stretched from ridge to ridge with drain holes over the furrow sprayed with water for cooling also included a mechanical ventilation system
Transcept
laminated wood beams reinforced with iron rods
sloping sash bars for the glazing system
Time & Budget
9/26/50:
First column on site
Columns placed just 18 hrs after casting
01/51
Structural frame completed
Bid: 79,800 Change Orders: 27,980 + 35,000 Total Cost: 142,780
The Exhibition:
By 9/25/51: 451,000 in receipts
On 10/7/51: almost 100,000 guests
On 10/11/51: closed to the public On 5/12/52: Sold for 70,000
After the Crystal Palace
Lyndhurst by Lord & Burnham
Hothouses for the millions
Horeau & Turner:
Prize Winners for Exhibition
Paris & London proposals,
Paris executed Train stations, other exhibitions, NY etc.
Hot Houses for the Millions
Residential Greenhouses
Winter Garden in the Anglo-Japanese Style
Glass House by Bruno Taut
Expressionist architecture
Built at the Cologne
Werkbund Concrete lamellar structure Glass ceilings, walls, floors, tiles
Outcomes
professional A/E jealousy and fear
shift from A/E to design/ build
concern that modular buildings could not be suited to
individual sites/ needs search for an appropriate aesthetic
Influences on Todays Building Practices
structural frame
standard rolled shapes
standard details strength testing
prefabrication
assembly/ disassembly published w/ enough detail to allow others to build
project management
